Voting for Maharashtra Assembly elections tomorrow, main contest between Mahayuti-MVA, know the complete equation

Voting will be held on all 288 seats under Maharashtra Assembly elections on Wednesday. All preparations for voting have been completed by the Election Commission. Voting on all 288 seats will begin at 7 am and end at 6 pm. Counting of votes will take place on November 23. While the ruling ‘Mahayuti’ alliance is trying to retain power in this election, the opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is hoping to make a grand return to power.

All preparations for voting have been completed by the Election Commission. Officials said the updated number of voters is 9,70,25,119. These include 5,00,22,739 male voters, 4,69,96,279 female voters and 6,101 transgender voters. Moreover, the total number of disabled voters is 6,41,425, while the number of armed forces service voters is 1,16,170. This time there will be 1,00,186 polling stations in Maharashtra, whereas in the 2019 assembly elections their number was 96,654. This increase has been made due to increase in the number of voters. About six lakh state government employees will be deployed for election duty.

This time the number of candidates has increased by 28 percent as compared to the last assembly elections (2019). This year, 4,136 candidates are contesting the elections, whereas in 2019, 3,239 candidates were in the fray. Of these candidates, 2,086 are independents. Rebel candidates are in the fray on more than 150 seats, including Mahayuti and MVA candidates contesting against their party’s official candidates.

BJP, which is part of the ruling grand alliance, is contesting on 149 seats in the elections to be held on November 20, while Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has fielded its candidates on 81 seats. Ajit Pawar-led NCP is contesting on 59 seats. Congress, which is part of MVA, is contesting on 101 seats, Shiv Sena (UBT) on 95 and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) on 86 seats. Smaller parties including Bahujan Samaj Party and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) are also contesting the elections. BSP has fielded 237 candidates and AIMIM has fielded 17 candidates.

During the election campaign, prominent leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress President Kharge, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and many Union Ministers campaigned for their candidates in the state. Apart from the BJP, the ruling Mahayuti alliance also includes Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The alliance hopes to retain power on the back of its popular schemes like ‘Majhi Ladki Bahin’ launched for women.

During the election campaign, BJP prominently raised slogans like “If we divide, we will be cut” and “If we are united, we will be safe”. Opposition parties alleged that Mahayuti is trying to polarize voters on religious lines through these slogans. At the same time, all the allies of BJP also did not support these slogans. Ajit Pawar distanced himself from these slogans. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tried to clarify the meaning of the slogans, which created confusion in the ruling coalition.

Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising constituents of Congress, Shiv Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), raised slogans against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s “Bantenge to Katenge” and Prime Minister Modi’s “Ek hai to safe hai” slogans. Criticized. The MVA alliance countered the ruling alliance’s propaganda by focusing on issues such as caste-based enumeration, social justice and protecting the Constitution. The opposition aimed to appeal to voters who felt neglected by the government.

Ahead of voting, the BJP launched a new advertising campaign on Monday. It attacks the opposition MVA and urges voters to “say no to Congress”. The ad campaign references various incidents from the past including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and the killing of sadhus in Palghar.

Cash and goods worth Rs 252.42 crore were seized in actions taken by various enforcement agencies since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect on October 15 in the state. The seized items include Rs 63.47 crore in cash, 34,89,088 liters of liquor worth Rs 33.73 crore. Apart from this, narcotics worth Rs 32.67 crore and precious metals (gold and silver) worth Rs 83.12 crore have also been seized. During the same period, 2,469 complaints related to model code of conduct violations were received across the state through the ‘C-VIGIL’ app. Of these, 2,452 complaints (99.31 percent) were disposed of immediately.